Underdogs AC Monaco Overcome Pep’s Rich Kids

A sluggish Manchester City defence was exploited last night by AC Monaco’s young, explosive attack. In the first leg City came out on top with an emphatic 5-3 win at the Etihad. In Manchester, Guardiola’s inexperienced back line were ripped to pieces in the first half, but fortunately for them Agüero and the rest of the punishing attack rescued the first leg, which seemed to give them a great advantage over their opposition. Hopes were high for the men in blue as they arrived in Monaco, but the elaborate city disguised the team’s ruthless nature. AS Monaco’s manager Leonardo Jardim went for an aggressive 4-3-3 whilst Pep’s side set up with a contrasting 4-1-4-1 formation, with an aim to maintain their 2 goal advantage. If Manchester City won, they would join fellow English side Leicester City in the quarter finals, after their well fought out victory ended 2-0 over Spanish side Sevilla. Little did they know, Monaco had other ideas. The first five minutes were looking shaky for the City defence, and this continued when Sagna left space on the left for Bernardo Silva to play a brilliant ball into the promising, young talent Kylian Mbappé who fired it past Willy Caballero, giving him his second ever goal in European football, after only eight minutes. Things continued to deteriorate as Monaco kept pushing at the Man City defence on the chase of the miraculous comeback. Their efforts were rewarded on the half hour mark when the young goal scorer started an attack. He made it to Stones before releasing Thomas Lemar who picked out Mendy beautifully. Once again Sagna was at fault allowing Mendy to spot the run of Fabinho who advanced his run past Kolarov and finished a wonderful attack and fired it home, giving the home side a great advantage ahead of the interval. Keeping the dream alive! The second half got underway and things began to shape up for the English side. Tactics changed in the second half as Pep Guardiola switched to a more compact formation to deal with the potent Monaco attack. Sagna improved immensely after the break, beginning to shut out their opportunities. Manchester City continued to dominate the possession, creating more and more goal scoring chances for the main man Agüero. The hard work eventually paid off in the 71st minute, as a shot from Raheem Sterling forced a save from the AS Monaco keeper Danijel Subasic, allowing summer signing Leroy Sane to smash it in at the back post, putting Manchester City 6-5 up on aggregate. Spirits were high for the away fans. Just minutes later, Kevin de Bruyne conceded a cynical foul outside the box on the right hand side. Bernardo Silva stepped up and floated a nice ball into a dangerous area, a difficult one for the Manchester City players to defend. This proved lethal as Tiemoué Bakayoko took full advantage of the poor marking, planting the header into the bottom right corner, with pace. Monaco were winning the tie on away goals with 15 minutes to go. Manchester City were rushing their play, trying desperately to score the goal they so desperately needed. Their attempts came to nothing and Monaco managed to hold onto their lead and progress into the quarter finals of the Champions League. Players, staff and Leonardo Jardim, ecstatic, rushed onto the pitch to celebrate with their team-mates and loyal fans. On the opposite side of the pitch was grief. City players could simply not believe they had just led that two goal lead slip. The game lived up to all expectations. City did not put in the best performance but nothing should be taken away from Jardim and his thrilling team. They thoroughly deserved to go through thanks to the youthful talent of Bakayoko, Bernardo Silva and Mbappé